The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-10-19
JUST LIKE MISS FLITE.
The Last Move in the Celebrated Suit
of Myra Clark Gaines.
From the Nec York World.

trial figure VIII shortly come to close. To
day the Supreme Court of the United State
heard argument on the final phase of th
litigation between Mrs Gaines and the cit,
of New Orleans, and in rendering its de
cision will settle this famous controvers,
forever.
There has been no more picturesque figur
in legal history than this woman fighting
almost single-handed the power of a grea
corporation for fifty-three years, and there
has scarcely been a case in the Jurisprudence
of this world SO full of romantic interest
Mrs. Gaines herself was a most interest
ing character. During her later life she
was looked upon as a garrulous old woman
half-craZed with continuous broodlng over
her imagined or real wrongs. Dickens
might have had her in partial mind when
he described Miss Elite, only Miss tlte
never had that tenacity of purpose which
was Mrs. Gaines dominant CHARACTERISTIC.
However much her mind was unstrung, 1t
vibrated clearly when it came in contact
with her great cause She never for an in
slant lost track of the multitudinouS turns
and crossings Of her litigation. 1t is said
that up to the day of her death she could
remember every date and name and number
in the voluminous record made by fifty
three years of ceaseleSS litigation. In fact,
remaining on the scene as attorney after
dIJOIDSN DdhStu away, ouO bCShAhc AA'Ai9
pensable to each new lawyer who took
charge of her case.
Up to the present moment the city of New
Orleans has had the worst of the fight. The
issue now pending before the Supreme
Crurt is an appeal taken by the city from a
Judgment of about S2,000,000 rendered
against it in 1888 by Judge Billings, of the
United States Circuit Court for the Eastern
district of Louisiana This Judgment was
fhat Ire Gaines
had ever won, as the court Immediately is
sued a mandamus compelling the city to
levy a tax in order to satisfy the Judgment,
but an appeal was taken to the Supreme
Court on both the original suit and the man
damus processing. That was four years
ago, and yet 50 far behind is the Supreme
Court in its work that the appeals have Just
been reached.
Mrs. Gaines died in 1885. Her death oc-
CURED on Jan. s, which. as the anniversary
of the battle of New Orleans, is set apart as
the municipal day of celebration. Much
comment was made upon the coincidence,
and the friends of the city looked upon it as
good omen But she left her Judgment
and her litigation behind her. a doubtful
inheritance, as her heirs, in the scramble
over her succession, have begun a litigation
that promises to be before the courts long
after the orig inal suit is disposed Of The
value that Mrs. Gaines possessed at the time
of her death, having spent the fortunes of
two husbands in her litigious career. She
was supported for a number of years prior
to her death by relatives who had great ex-
pectations, and she died in poverty
The Judgment of two millions at present
under consideration represents the value of
certain property in New Orleans that Mrs.
Gaines claimed There was considerable
mora hacidas FOR, which che o1SO -
suit, but she compromised the cases from
time to time with the contemporaneou
holders, and thereby secured means to carry
on her central fight.
As is so-often the case, this celebrated
litigation sprang out of second will and
doubtful parentage. Daniel Clark, the
father of Myra, died in New Orleans in 1913.
He was born in Sligo, ireland, in 1865, and
was a man of large fortune. At the time of
his death he had no relatives in Louisiana,
but his mother lived in Germantown, to
whom, under a will made in 1911. he left all
his property. This will was duly probated
and executors were appointed and qualified
In 1921 the executors sold for "a 759 a Ger
tain piece of property, now known as the
"Blanc Tract which is the property in
dispute, to Evariste Blanc, who, in his turn,
thirteen years after, sold it to the city. The
city divided the property into sixty
Consequently the original Blanc Tract is
held by different parties all of whom derive
title from the city.
In 1894 Myra Clark, who had Just married
William Wallace Whitney, came into the
Louisiana courts and offered to prove, first,
that she was the legitimate daughter of
Daniel Clark, and, second, that she inherited
from him under a will which he had made
in 1918, the year of his DEATH and which
had han11 lost Sba oclraI that hn No.
of the will of 1911 be set aside, that the
acts of the executors under this will be de-
clared null and void and that she be put in
possession of the property. These demands
the city resisted. and thus fifty-three years
ago the issues were distinctly Joined.
Myra's first and most difficult task was to
prove her parentage, or rather to prove that
the relations existing between her father
and mother We're lawful The exact date
of her birth is not known. In the earlier
stages of the litigation she alleged that she
was born in 1905, but later on she fixed the
year as 1906. 1t is said that she found il
expedient to make this change inaorder to
avoid prescription. Her mother was Zu-
lime Carriere, or Nine. Des Oranges,
or Nine. Clark, or Nine Gardette,
as the time and case happened to
be. Five days after her birth she
was removed from her mother and taken
TO Philadelphia, where she was placed in the
care of Col. S. 2. DAVIS, of that city. She
was reared as Col. Davis child, and in that
period of her life was known as Myra Davis.
Her origin was kept from her. In 1908, two
or three years after Myra's birth, Zrllime
went to Philadelphia, and by the rites of
the Catholic church was in due form mar
ried to James Gardette, practicing dentist
residing in that city, and for years lived
within a few blocks of the residence of
Davis, where Myra, her offspring, was
being reared by the bounty of others
Iulime seems to have been a woman Of
many marital eccentricities Before she
met Clark she had been married to one Des
Oranges in Bordeaux and there is no record
of any divorce having been obtained at any
stage of her career. Myra did not learn of
her origin until she was 26 years of age
and about to marry Whitney Two wears
afterward she instituted her first suit.
Owing to her mothers peculiar domestic
relations she had great difficulty in proving
her legitimacy. She succeeded, however,
at least the courts decided, after several
years of litigation, that Clark had the
doubtful honor of being Zulime's husband
This settled, there still remained the difficult
task of proving the will of 1918. 1t was
lost, and hid only been seen by two or three
persons But Mrs. Gaines persistency
triumphed over all obstacles, and she had the
existence of the will established. She then had
the probation of the will of 1911 set aside. and
step by step neared ultimate victory. Whit
ney died, and she married the distinguished
Gen. Edmund Pendleton Gaines who in his
turn died, leaving the little woman to make